By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
The first person I met who earned a living working in pro baseball was a Cincinnati Reds scout named Elmer Gray. He came to Kingston to run a free-agent tryout camp at Megaffin Stadium in the summer of 1971.

Gray was as an honorable man as my father and my father set the bar high.

A year later the Montreal Expos, led by smooth-talking Mel Didier their farm director, came to St. Lawrence College for a clinic. Over the years I thought Didier was one of the most honourable men I had ever met -- even if we thought he had the darnedest French accent ever. (It turned out Melvin was from “Louisiana not Moor-ree-ALL ... podnah.”)

Covering the Montreal Expos I got to know John McHale, president of the club, and then in Toronto, Pat Gillick, who on his was to a Hall of Fame career. Two more honorable, respected men. 

It was very difficult for anyone else to crack that group ... let’s call it my personal Honor Guard: Gray, Didier, McHale and Gillick.

McHale passed away Jan. 17, 2008 and Gray on Aug. 18, 2014. Entering my Honor Guard to replace McHale and Gray were Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz and Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan.

Honor and honorable are not words you hear each and every radio or TV broadcast and there is a reason for that.

Ryan, let go by the Twins week, certainly fit the description.

How much was Ryan respected?

Well, we spoke to three Twins employees this week who didn’t want to be quoted. They were too upset. They sounded as if their dog had run away onto the freeway ... One man’s voice cracked as he spoke of the unknown and what laid ahead “LWTR” (Life Without Terry Ryan) ... Stories in papers in the Twin Cities told of Twins people weeping.

Ryan was more of a fixture around Minneapolis-St. Paul than Mary Tyler Moore. He was with the Twins 34 of the previous 44 years through good and bad.  

Here is how loyal Ryan was:

In 2001 Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey decided to fire general manager Gord Ash. Godfrey made an excellent choice for Ash’s successor tabbing Ryan as his No. 1 choice. And then all of a sudden Ryan was out of the hunt on Dec. 11, 2001.

Despite being the former publisher of the Toronto Sun, Godfrey was never, ever expansive when it came to the news around the Blue Jays -- he wanted everything to be a three-way tie among the three newspapers. This time he said “maybe you better call him.”

So, we called Terry Ryan. Ryan said he was flattered to be on the list of GMs to be interviewed and what a successful franchise the Jays had been ... 11 consecutive winning seasons coming to an end in 1994. I’m not from Toronto, so I wasn’t offended that he didn’t want to come and work here. It was a puzzle as to why.

“With everything going on right now, I have a tough time traipsing around looking for another position,” Ryan said. “It doesn’t seem right. I have a lot of responsibility and accountability here. I want to see what happens to this franchise first.”

The Twins organization was loyal to Ryan over the years and Ryan wanted to return the favor in what were trying times in the Twin Cities. The captain of the Twins chose to stick with the ship even though at the time there was a distinct chance that the Twins could sink into oblivion ceasing to exist in 2002 under commissioner Bud Selig’s grand contraction plans, which would have seen both the Montreal Expos and the Twins erased. 

Ryan chose not to interview because it would send a bad signal to Twins scouts and front-office personnel. 

Think about that for a second: your company or work place is in danger of folding. A larger revenue business wants to hire you. 

Raise your hand if you would stay rather than move on to provide income for your family.

“I would not want to go there and talk to them because it would send the wrong message to our employees,” Ryan said. “I was flattered by the interest from Toronto, but I can’t do anything right now, because I hope to remain here.

“There are things here that have to be addressed, hopefully we will play here next season.”

Ryan’s 2001 Twins went from 85 wins, to one foot in the grave to 94 wins and winning the American League Central. They beat the Oakland A’s and then lost to the Anaheim Angels in the AL Championship Series.

And so began a strong of four 90-plus wins in five seasons. 

There was a time when Andy MacPhail was general manager, Tom Kelly was the manager, Ryan was the scouting director and Larry Corrigan was a respected scout, opposing scouts used to joke that the Twins were run by the Irish mafia.

* * *
Peter Gammons, the Hall of Fame ball scribe from Boston suffered a brain aneurysm near his Cape Cod home on June 27, 2006. After surgery he entered a rehab hospital and on Aug. 19 made his first public appearance.

That year at the winter meeting Gammons was back in harness, doing the work of five men. We asked him who had phoned him the most while he was in hospital.

Gammons said it was a tie. And when you read the names one is an apple and the other is ... well not an apple. The two baseball people who phoned Gammons the most and encouraged him to get well and get out of that hospital were Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Terry Ryan.  

* * *
We knew that the Twins were being considered as one of the teams that could be contracted for 2002. Yet, we didn’t know how far down the road the Twins were. The 2001 GMs meetings were scheduled for Chicago. So Ryan had assistant Wayne Krivsky fly into Minneapolis from his home in Texas and then the two, along with Bill Smith, so they could work in the car on the 400-mile drive to Chicago.

At the meetings, most of the time spent directing clubs on how the contraction process would work. The threesome got back in the car for the seven-hour drive back to Minneapolis on Friday afternoon.
 
About an hour into the trip, Twins president Jerry Bell called to tell Terry that the Blue Jays wanted to interview him for their vacant GM job and that multiple people had recommended him to Toronto. Ryan got a call from Paul Godfrey a few minutes later and was asked to fly to Toronto for an interview on Sunday.
 
Ryan, Krivsky and Smith spent the next five hours asking -- and trying to answer -- every question that a candidate might want to know. The SkyDome and Dunedin facilities were discussed, along with the front office, major league roster, impending free agents, salary arbitration, the minor league staff and affiliates, scouting, draft and everything else.
 
Ryan asked for a more info and Smith into the office Saturday morning, typed things up from their drive and gathered the additional info into a three-ring notebook. Smith stopped by Ryan’s house in the afternoon to drop it off and he was very appreciative. Ryan told Smith he had declined the interview. No way was he jumping ship and abandoning the rest of the organization. 

Ryan said he had an obligation to all the people in the Twins organization – front office, minor leagues and scouting. That winter, with all the looming changes and contraction, the entire organization only lost one employee who relocated outside of Minnesota due to her husband’s job change. Everyone else stayed, and many people believe that Ryan’s decision was a huge factor. He was never “offered” the Toronto job, but he turned down a potential lucrative multi-year guarantee to stay in Minnesota and work through the changes.

* * *
Drafted in the 35th round by the Twins in 1972 Ryan pitched in the minors for class-A Wisconsin Rapids and double-A Orlando until the 1976 season. After that graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1979 and was hired as a scout by the New York Mets the next year where he spent six seasons.

Then, the Twins hired him as scouting director, a position he held for six years. He was then promoted to player personnel director under GM Andy MacPhail.

The Twins had had four winning seasons -- 85 wins 84 wins, 82 wins (twice) in 16 seasons from 1971-86.

General manager Andy MacPhail changed how the Twins did business in a professional and first class manner.

Manager Tom Kelly changed how the Twins play the game on the field with a greater attention to detail and preparation.

And scouting director Terry Ryan changed everything about the Twins scouting and evaluation system.

MacPhail, Kelly and Ryan won the 1987 and 1991 World Series.

MacPhail left for the Chicago Cubs in 1994, Ryan was chosen to replace him. And from 2002 to 2010, the Twins reached post-season play six times.  

Ryan resigned as GM Oct. 1, 2007 with assistant Bill Smith taking over. Ryan remained on staff scouting and acting as a consultant but he then returned to his former post on after the 2011 season replacing Smith. It the first time that the Twins had fired a GM since the franchise moved to the Twin Cities from Washington, D.C.

Ryan missed the start of 2014 due to cancer treatments and was the GM until being relieved of his duties on July 18. When management indicated it would probably make a change at the end of the season, Ryan said “let’s do it now, let the club get on with its business.” He did not want to put on a charade for the final three months.

* * *
The annual GM’s meetings were held at the O’Hare Hilton in 2009. 

Gary Sutherland, Bill Stoneman’s right-hand man with the Los Angeles Angels jumped into a cab at O’Hare and said “O’Hare Hilton please.”  The cabby pointed out the window ... less than 100 feet away.

Jim Hendry and the Chicago Cubs delegation made the 40 minute trek from the North side.

And Ryan, along with Bill Smith, his dear aide and long-time confident drove. They drove from Minneapolis to Kansas City in time to see Twins legend Mike Radcliff honored by the Midwest Scouts Association with its Scout of the Year award. Then they drove to Joliet, Ill. on Sunday and on Monday were up early to drive to Chicago and Monday’s start of the GMs meetings. And then they drove home on Wednesday afternoon.

Before the Twins executives departed O’Hare someone asked Smith “why not fly home?”

“What and miss all that time alone in the car with Terry?” Smith asked. They covered about 1,500 miles for the three legs of the trip. 

* * * 
Corey Koskie first saw Terry Ryan in 1994 when the Anola, Man. native was a first-year pro at rookie-class Elizabethton. There wasn’t a lot of interaction between one of the 30 Elizabethton Twins and the man from the front office.

Koskie made his first start in 1999 season against the Toronto Blue Jays collecting three hits and knocking in five runs at the MetroDome. He singled to left off Joey Hamilton knocking in a run in the second; hit a two-run double to left centre facing Hamilton in the third and singled to left facing Peter Munro knocking in two runs in an 11-9 win.  

“Terry Ryan was my boss, I was his employee,” Koskie said from Edina, Minn. “He was a quiet guy, who didn’t say much. He was old school in the way he was and in some of his ways of thinking. I respected the heck out of him.”

The deeper into his seven-year career with the Twins Koskie went, the deeper the relationship between Koskie and Ryan grew.

“The longer I played the more and more I heard stories how he was a big fan of mine,” Koskie said. “How some people wanted to get rid of me, but scouts told me Terry was always, always in my corner. He went to bat for me a number of times.”

Koskie would visit Ryan and sit in his office during the season or in the off season “just to talk some baseball.”

“Terry came up as a scout, he played the game, he was a great evaluator of talent, he gets it,” Koskie said. “If you asked him a question, he answered it honestly. He gave straight forward answers. Nowadays everyone is about political correctness and people not wanting to hurt people’s feelings. Terry was honest and fair.”

* * *
As the GM of the Twins, Ryan earned a reputation for achieving more than expected with his payroll ... he had success moving veterans for future all-stars: Dave Hollins to the Mariners for David Ortiz. The M's wanted Hollins so Ryan sent scout Howie Norsetter into Appelton to watch the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Seattle gave the Twins five names, Norsetter told Ryan to ask for David Arias ... who grew up to be David Ortiz.

And then there was moving Roberto Kelly to Seattle for Joe Mays, Chuck Knoblauch to the Yanks for a package, including all-stars: shortstop Cristian Guzman and pitcher Eric Milton; Rick Aguilera to the Cubs for Kyle Lohse; outfielder Matt Lawton to the Mets for Rick Reed; Bobby Kielty to the Jays for veteran Shannon Stewart, who finished fourth in the AL MVP voting; A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano plus he acquired future Cy Young award winner Johan Santana as a Rule V pick from the Houston Astros.

Any time anyone would get on a roll listing his good trades, Ryan would slide in “and don’t forget Ortiz.” 

The Twins released Ortiz after the 2002 season and 469 Red Sox homers later, he is still hacking.

* * *
First time Howie Norsetter met Terry Ryan it was at 60 paces ... plus six inches in 1977. Ryan was pitching for the Madison A’s, a large-market National Baseball Congress team composed of best available talent in the Midwest made up of former pros and Division 1 college guys. 

Norsetter was with Cottage Grove (pop. 606), a town team, which had the entire backing of the entire burg and most of it showed for NBC Wisconsin state championship game. 

“He struck me out, it was a bad call, the pitch was way outside, six inches outside,” Norsetter recalled like he was looking at a Pitch Trax print out from last week. “That ump had a bar time strike zone, an Eric Gregg zone. It still haunts me to this day.

“I was out of high school, Terry had returned from pro ball. They beat us 26-1 ... but we scored first.”

Norsetter ran into Ryan throughout the early 1980s at his games since Norsetter played for one of the better amateur teams in the state with a few draft picks and future major leaguers. The two had a few conversations about the mechanics of scouting back then. 

An Australian, Gavin Hockey, threw a no hitter with Ryan watching so Norsetter asked Ryan what he thought.

“Ryan broke down his body, his delivery, his stuff, his makeup,” said Norsetter, who learned scouting had very little to do with performance.

Norsetter was still playing second base for the Avenue Bar from Madison, Wisc., when he went to a Twins game at the Metrodome in 1988. Andy MacPhail was the general manager and Ryan was the scouting director. Ryan invited Norsetter into his office, mentioned that the Twins had scouting openings and asked Norsetter if he had ever thought about getting into scouting?

“It was the first time I learned that you didn’t have to have played pro to get a job in pro ball,” said Norsetter who declined the offer saying “I can still hit. I’m going to play a bit longer.” Ryan told Norsetter to call when he was done. From 1984-90 he played in Australia in the winter and in Wisconsin State League -- basically the University of Wisconsin summer league, a loop which inducted him into its Hall of Fame this year. 

Norrsetter took a job managing the Melbourne Bushrangers in the Australian League in 1990. When he finished playing he contacted Ryan with news he was hanging it up ... putting the bat in the bat rack a final time and was ready for the next step. He called Minneapolis: “If that offer was still open, I’d like to take it up.”

Ryan sent Norsetter a check for $3,000, a stop watch, a radar gun, a manual, some forms and the instructions: “find me some players.” Hired me on the spot.

“I didn’t know at the time was that he had been scouting me for years ... just not as a player,” said Norsetter.

Norsetter helped sign infielder Luis Rivas out of Venezuela in 1995 and he drafted and signed Justin Morneau from the North Delta Blue Jays in the third round as the top Canadian in 1999. Morneau won the 2006 American League MVP and he is playing with the Chicago White Sox in this his 14th year.    

Besides Rivas and Morneau -- which earned him Canadian Baseball Network Scout of the Year honor -- he also signed future major leaguers Corey Koskie, Grant Balfour, Max Kepler, Michael Nakamura, Luke Hughes, Liam Hendriks, Peter Moylan and Trent Oeltjen. Norsetter also signed Yancarlo Franco, Allan De San Miguel, Jakub Hajtmar, Loek van Mil, Brad Tippett, Alexander Smit, James Beresford, Markus Solbach, Matej Hejma, Andrey Lobanov, Todd Van Steensel, Darren Fidge, Logan Wade, Sam Gibbons, Aaron Whitefield and Hein Robb among others from his base in Victoria, Australia.

So from 1977 until now, Norsetter knew Ryan the baseball man. From 1990 until now, Norsetter knew Ryan the boss.

“Terry Ryan was the kind of leader who let his people do their jobs as they saw fit, he was not a micro-manager, his philosophy was that his people were autonomous, but accountable,” said Norsetter. “However, he led by example, you always felt that you wanted to work as hard as he did. You’d be willing to do the long drives, stay in the cheap hotels, box out every player, arrive early and stay until the end of the game ... because that’s what he did.”

Ryan was usually the last one to leave the Metrodome when the Twins were at home. He’d wait until the Twins triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate had finished and he spoke to the manager. One night a woman returned to the dome after leaving her wallet at the game. Everything was locked and she couldn’t find anybody to let her inside. Finally, she noticed a light on in an office, knocked on the window and Ryan was there. He came to the door, let her in, took her to her seat, helped her find her wallet. The woman had no idea it was the Twins’ GM on his hands and knees looking under seats.

“Terry Ryan treated everybody the way that he hoped to be treated if he was in their shoes,” Norsetter said. “He answered every letter personally, paid attention to every player on the field and boxed them all out, because he knew some college or summer coach would be calling about players and he wanted to have something for them.”

Labeled an ‘old school scout’ who didn’t embrace analytics, Norsetter said nothing is further from the truth, pointing out the “scouting forms he has used since the 1990s to cover pro games have detailed stats incorporated in the form.

“We were working with RPG (RPG is runs per game), RC+ (Runs Created plus), and other internally developed stats long before we had a modern analytics department.”

Norsetter told of an organizational meeting in the 1990s when we were discussing middle infielder Luis Rivas and Christan Guzman (acquired from the Yankees class-A Tampa roster in the Chuck Knoblauch deal) and Ryan questioned how scouts and development people could consider promoting either when they barely had on-base mark of .300 in class-A. 

“Maybe a reason we were late to develop a modern stat analytics department was that stat analysis was the responsibility of the individual scout,” Norsetter said. “The expectation was that scouts would incorporate stats in their analysis. In the 1990s, Twins scouting staff were considered floppy disks and geeks. Ironic that now we are considered “old school.”

Norsetter is a card-carrying member of the Terry W. Ryan fan club. 

“Terry Ryan’s honesty, humility, and integrity are legendary,” Norsetter said. “What people might not be aware of are his tremendous intelligence, compassion and his tremendous Irish sense of humor. He is a wonderful storyteller. Other than that chrome dome, he would be perfect for ESPN.

“I am in professional baseball because of TR. I wish we could have gotten him some better players to work with.”

* * *
In 2003, Al Newman, Twins third base coach, suffered a brain hemorrhage prior to a game in Chicago. Ryan was on the trip and stayed in Chicago for almost two weeks, visiting Newman every day, talking to the doctors and helping Newman’s wife get through a very difficult period.  

Ryan refused to leave Chicago while Newman was still in trouble.
 

* * *
Sal Butera, the longest serving Jays scout, was a 22-year-old catcher at double-A Orlando when he caught a 21-year-old right-hander named Terry Ryan from Janesville, Wisc. in 1975. It was the start of a long-lasting relationship of mutual respect.

“Terry then moved to the front office, we won the 1987 World Series I came over here to play the next year for the Jays and began working here in 1995, Terry traded for my son, Drew Butera, getting him from the New York Mets in 2009,” said Butera as the Jays took batting practice Friday night. 

“Terry Ryan is a man of great character. They don’t get any better. He is one of the most honest forthright men in the game. He’s just a class individual.”

* * *
The first time Bill Smith met Ryan, Smith was GM of the Appleton Foxes, a Chicago White Sox affiliate in 1984. Ryan was a scout for the Mets doing his class-A Midwest League coverage: first person in the park each mid-afternoon watching both teams hit and take infield every day.

The next time Smith met Ryan was in 1986, driving from Appelton to Minneapolis for a job interview. Smith was interviewed by Ryan, the new Twins scouting director and Jim Rantz, the new minor league director for a new position -- assistant to both.

We saw Smith, special assistant to the president and GM, when the Jays visited Target Field in May. We wondered if Ryan had changed since the days Smith, class-A GM, watched the scout sit quietly and focus on the field all afternoon and throughout the game at night.

In May, Ryan was still as focused but the only difference is he watched eight games simultaneously on the monitors in the GM booth at Target Field.

 
* * *
What others are saying _ Andy MacPhail, Philadelphia Phillies president, former Twins GM: “Terry is who you want your kids to grow up and become. He has a tireless work ethic, is fair, transparent and guided by an unwavering sense of integrity. He transformed an aging and unfocused scouting staff into one of the game’s best. In 1989, Terry had one of the game’s most successful drafts when he selected two future 20-game winners and two future rookies of the year, who became the foundation of our 91 championship.”

LaTroy Hawkins, a seventh-round draft choice of the Twins in 1991, who went on to pitch 21 years in the majors, including nine with Minnesota: “TR, is one of the pure baseball minds that knows from experience  that numbers don’t show the whole picture. He valued character high on his list!! He’s always been No. 1 on my list of baseball people. And always will be. I’m looking forward to working with him one day!”

Gord Ash, an assistant general manger with the Milwaukee Brewers: “Terry Ryan is one of the last of a breed: a scout turned GM. That doesn’t happen very often any more,” Ash said. “Terry is a very humble man.   

Gary Hughes, Boston Red Sox super scout: “Terry Ryan ran the most respected loyal organization in baseball for many years. It was an honor call him a friend since 1978 when we met in Brockton, Mass. watching a two-sport athlete named Greg McMurtry play in a park across the street from Rocky Marciano’s boyhood home. Terry and were preparing for the upcoming June draft which was to be each of our first as rookie scouting directors (Hughes was with the Montreal Expos then). A good man Terry Ryan. A credit to the game.” 

Dave Yoakum, Chicago White Sox super scout (inducted into the Professional Scouts Hall of Fame in Fort Myers with Ryan in 2010): “ In all those years that he was general manager, I never heard one single negative thing about him from anyone. I find that remarkable in this business. Especially, considering the 100s of people he worked with during those years. And, he always made himself accessible to scouts and the media. I hope he lands somewhere very soon if he wants to continue working. If not he’ll, be missed by many of us in and out of the game of baseball.”

Paul Ricciarini, scout, Florida Marlins: “I don’t have many stories but I have such a high degree of respect for Terry as a leader and friend who simply “cares” about his people and our National Pastime. He cares more than the norm ... A very painful move to witness and I know he can take a bullet better than most. He always dealt with me personally with the highest degree of honor and I really feel we have a wonderful relationship both as competitors and former Mets’ alums!!”

Tim Wilken, scout, Arizona Diamondbacks: “Just remembering when it looked like Minnesota was going to dissolve and Paul Godfrey called to ask permission to talk to him about the GM job. Terry stuck with the franchise when it looked bleak for the Twins.”

* * *
Ryan was at double-A New Britain in 2014 when Byron Buxton suffered a terrible collision in the outfield. Ryan visited Buxton in the hospital.
 
He has been honored with not one but two different Roland Hemond awards (one in the Arizona Fall League and SABR). He was Sporting News executive of the year in 2002 and again in 2006.

Once Ryan received a nasty letter from a season ticket holder and invited her up to his booth for an inning during the game.

The amateur Baseball group in Minnesota (Play Ball! Minnesota) named its highest award in his honor for people who promote youth ball.

  
* * *
Terry Ryan traded Morneau to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the 2013 non-waiver trade deadline. The Twins were in Arlington, Tex playing the Rangers.

“We were fair to Justin, Justin was fair to us,” Ryan said later that year.

Morneau did not want to leave.

This spring when he was a free agent rehabbing from surgery he headed to Florida with the Canadian Junior National Team as a guest coach. Morneau had someone take a picture of him throwing batting practice. Morneau then sent the picture to Ryan with the slug: “I’m making a comeback as a two-way player.”

We remember doing a feature on Paul Molitor during his chase for 3,000 hits and a marketing woman with the Twins using the term “Minnesota Nice” to describe Molitor, a native of St. Paul, Minn.

Terry Ryan, a good baseball man, may have hailed from Wisconsin, but he was Minnesota Nice.

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